Some evolutions for the Symbian Signed program

Bruce Carney, Director for Developer Programs & Services at Symbian Ltd, has just made public some short term evolutions for the Symbian Signed program. While new subscriptions shall now be enabled again, some significant changes are on their way. Here is what you can expect:

Simplified Test Criteria

A reworked (and simplified) Symbian Signed Test Criteria ("Version 3") will be introduced. More details are expected later this week.

An Open Signed process

First, some changes regarding Developer Certificates (allowing signing to occur offline/remotely):

• Will require a Publisher ID
• Will require a registered account
• Will have access to all PlatSec Capabilities (except DRM, ALLFILES, TCB) without a legal agreement.
• Will require device manufacturer approval for (DRM, ALLFILES, TCB)
• DevCerts be valid for 36 months
• DevCerts will continue to be restricted by IMEIs but (IMEI restriction will be increase to 1000)
• Warning/Notification prompt when installed on device.

A good news if you are a company since certificates will be easier to manage with more IMEIs and capabilities. But not everybody has access to a Publisher ID. For those developer, the Open Signed process will be set up and (this is not totally confirmed and being discussed internally at Symbian Ltd):

• Will not require a registered account
• Will require a working/valid email address
• Will have access to all PlatSec Capabilities; except COMMDD, MULTIMEDIADD, NETWORKCONTROL, DISKADMIN, DRM, ALLFILES, TCB.
• Can sign their test applications online only via the portal and only for a single IMEI.
• Will be restricted to sign against a test UID range (only) and in some special cases publicly available UIDs (e.g. possibly for freeware)
• Will be virus scanned and also checked against existing application "signatures".
• Warning/Notification prompt when installed on device.

Express Signed process

And now for the (very) good news, especially if you intend to distribute several updates to your application which used to be long and costly), a even simpler Express Signed scheme:

• Publisher ID (only from TC Trustcenter) required.
• No IMEI restrictions on the signed SIS file
• Applications are required to comply with Symbian Signed Test Criteria, however they are signed immediately via www.symbiansigned.com
• Applications are batch tested (1:N) by Test Houses as an audit (i.e. sometime after the signing event)
• Audit results will be published.
• Low cost (approx 1/Nth of current test house signing cost)
• Available for all PlatSec Capabilities; except COMMDD, MULTIMEDIADD, NETWORKCONTROL, DISKADMIN, DRM, ALLFILES, TCB
• Will be virus scanned
• NO Warning/Notification prompt when installed on device.

Certified Signing process

This is the current certification scheme. However, you can expect a few more test cases to comply with.

Symbian Ltd is welcoming feedback. So, just jump to this thread to do so.